Hymn to Life | 2008

South Africa is currently experiencing one of the worst AIDS epidemics in the world. By the end of 2005, there were 5,5 million people living with HIV in South Africa, with almost 1 000 AIDS deaths occurring every day.

Each member of the South African community has to decide how to respond to this challenge:

Will we distance ourselves from the problem?

Will we be intolerant of people living with HIV?

Will we extend love and compassion?

We have decided to respond by formally associating Palissander with Heartbeat, a non-government organisation that alleviates the suffering of orphans and vulnerable children. These children live with terminally ill parents, or in households headed by other children or grandmothers. Five hundred volunteers have been mobilised at grass roots level to care for them. By the beginning of 2008 Heartbeat had reached 11 000 children in its communities of intervention. The target for the end of 2008 is 22 000 and for 2010, 50 000. As in the case of facing the challenge of HIV/AIDS, every person and community world-wide has to make numerous critical choices as we search for our place in life. Will we choose isolation, violence or compassion? Will we stand up for what we believe?

Each of us is like a music box with a unique song. The choices that we make reflect this song. May people hear, when they listen closely, a hymn to life, rather than a song of despair. Such a hymn to life is portrayed in the statues from the Vigeland Park, Norway, depicted in this booklet, which inspired this programme.